Trees of that age would require professional transplanting, in all likelihood. The larger (and older) trees are, the less able they are to transplant well and re-establish into a new location. It can certainly be done, but experts who know about preparation and who have the proper equipment are expensive. What is the DIAMETER (not the circumference) of the trunk at about chest high? With that information, I can give you a general idea of the size of the root ball required and even how much it might weigh. If this were my dilemma, I'd plant some new trees in a more appropriate location, and enjoy watching them grow and prosper.

Thanks, I read about Foliage Pro 9-3-6 and got a quart delivered from Amazon. It seems to provide everything needed. I'm giving bareroot transplants very modest (1/4 strength) the first week, and notched it up slightly for the second week. This comes after regular heavy watering on the weekend, so things are very mild, but there is some nutrient. The Valencia orange (Campbell actually) has shed some older, yellowish, mostly damaged leaves, but nothing alarming, and no fruit buds lost - just a little drooping after a warmer day, but it perked up the next day after a scheduled watering. The Meyer that was barerooted is acting like nothing happened. I may be imagining, but I think the leaves are turning greener.

A few weeks ago we transplanted a lime tree that had been growing in the ground for about 5 years. We were advised to plant it into a whiskey barrel planter. We followed all the directions of a professional but the tree looks dead and did so the day after transplanting it. I am very concerned because we were not told to prune the tree first and to not worry about how many roots we had to cut. We were told that the tree could lose 70% of its roots. We were also told to water the tree on a slow drip for 48 hours prior to transplanting. I have since read that the ground should have been dried 2-3 days prior and that we should not have cut the roots. I guess we basically did everything wrong! What do you think the chances are for this poor tree? Did we fail miserably? Were these completely wrong instructions? We moved and wanted to take the tree with us.

Satsuma is pretty hardy. It is grown in S. Louisiana and its a little colder there in the winter than in NE FL where I live. If you can put yours in the ground, you should. I have several citrus in pots. They will not put out as much fruit in a pot as in the ground. I get a few Buddah's Hands, Ruby grapefruits and Moro blood oranges, several meyer, and variegated Eureka lemons and Persian and Kaffir limes. I think the lemons and limes like pot culture more than other stuff. I am not putting mine in the ground here because I am planning on moving in a few years otherwise I would try some of it in the ground. I have 3 Buddah's Hands. One is on flying dragon root stock and two are own root. I accidently left one of the own root babies out at 26F this winter and the stem is mostly ok but all the leaves totally fried. It is/was about 5 ft tall. In Phx AZ I had a huge Moro Blood Orange in the ground. It is warmer in Phx than here in the winters but still gets a few good freezes every year. We had excellent color on those oranges but yes in general they do need some winter chill just not enough to kill the trees lol. Blood Oranges want to get huge so try and get one on dwarf root stock if you want to grow it in a pot. My blood orange and grapefruit are both on dwarf root stock.